The Kiss and Cry Chronicles: Welcome to Pyeongchang

The ‘Kiss and Cry’ is where figure skaters go to face their fate. The Kiss and Cry Chronicles is where fans go for figure skating fun.

Welcome to the Kiss and Cry Chronicles, where any content goes as long as it relates to Olympic figure skating. (Team USA, primarily, but who knows, we might need to talk about some of the other countries, too.) With the first figure skating competition starting primetime on Thursday, Feb. 8  we have a lot to cover.

In the inaugural edition of the Kiss and Cry Chronicles, we check in with Team USA as the men’s and pairs teams prepare for the start of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Men at work

The Team USA men had a chance to hit the practice ice on Tuesday in preparation for their first competition in the men’s short program on Thursday night.

Nathan Chen expressed awe at being on Olympics ice: “The ice feels awesome. I still have a couple of practices to get my feet under me, but ultimately everything feels good right now,” he said. Teammate Adam Rippon agreed, and added that he has been waiting for a long time to get to the Olympics and now that he’s here “it feels so right.”

Chen was selected to skate the short program for the team portion of the event. His trademark quad jumps will help boost his score, certainly, so he has two of the mega jumps planned in his short program. He will skate to Benjamin Clementine’s “Nemesis.”

While Chen has been focused on the short program, Rippon has been active on social media, responding to a tweet from actress Reese Witherspoon after she sent him a message of support on Twitter:

Homeopathic advantage

Rippon is ready for competition and he has some charms to help him get through the arduous competition. The charismatic skater made sure to bring his healing crystals to Pyeongchang even though the athletes are warned to pack light.

“They said, ‘Don’t pack too much,’ but I packed every healing crystal I could find.”

It’s probably a good idea, too, given that the norovirus is making the rounds through Olympics Village.

Speaking of the Village, Rippon can share his healing crystals with his roommates. He’s sharing a room with fellow men’s figure skater Vincent Zhou, women’s figure skater Mirai Nagasu and ice dance partners Zachary Donohue and Madison Hubbell. Imagine the conversations in that room after competitions!

Married… with medals

Meanwhile, the sole Team USA pairs team is getting ready for a busy schedule. Alexa Scimeca Knierim and her husband Chris Knierim make their Olympics debut in the pairs short program Thursday night. The duo will appear in both the team and pairs event, which means four events inside of a week.

Chris Knierim noted that the couple is excited to have an extra opportunity to skate: “It’s a big opportunity when you go to an Olympics and you get to compete your short and long for a normal Olympics. But now, for the team event, we have the opportunity to compete two more times in front of the world.”

Next: The complete Olympic figure skating schedule

The 2018 Winter Olympics figure skating competition kicks off Thursday at 8 p.m. ET on NBC.